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From: dove@mit-bug.UUCP (Web Dove)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Illusionists
Message-ID: <524@mit-bug.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 24-Nov-85 13:55:03 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-bug.524
Posted: Sun Nov 24 13:55:03 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Nov-85 07:44:41 EST
References: <620@drutx.UUCP> <104@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: dove@mit-bugs-bunny.UUCP (Web Dove)
Organization: MIT Digital Signal Processing Group
Lines: 37

We always used to play that illusions couldn't "really" effect you.
Fireball might "trick" you into dying, but you wouldn't really be
burned.  After seeing that AMAZING STORY about the bomber crew with
the phantasmal landing gear, I think I like the idea that if you don't
disbelieve, then it IS real.  That means the illusory fireball will
burn up all your scrolls etc.  Disbelief would be a sort of magic
resistance.

In that event, the DM needn't hide the fact that something is illusory.
If our people knew something was illusory they would behave
differently towards it even if they didn't disbelieve.

If the effects were real then you could have "positive" illusions in
the dungeon such as illusory doors to treasure rooms with real
treasure (unless someone in the party succesfully believed then the party
wouldn't get any treasure).  Or illusory magic weapons that you would
have to believe in to use (give them to the stupid people in the
party).  Consider the famous tunnels into mountains in "road runner"
cartoons.  One character believes and can enter the tunnel.  The other
doesn't so they smash into the mountain.

We have a convenient way of disbelieving.  The Deities book
specifies that 19+ intelligence is immune to certain level illusions.
We would just have the player (or the dm) calculate a characters
effective intelligence vs the illusion in question.

Your effective intelligence is your true intelligence - 4 plus one
point for each d6 you can roll without rolling a 1.  For any attempt
your effective intelligence ends up being about 4 pts higher than what
you started with (there is about a 50/50 chance of rolling 4 non ones
using a d6).

If you were told that the effect was illusory (by someone who
disbelieved) then the next round you would get one more try (by yourself
you only got a single try).  This second time you rolled d8's instead
of d6's.  In a similar way, the dm could use higher dice if the effect
was unusually "suspicious".